


Heartstrings

by IAmStoryteller



Series: Never Practical [1]
Category: Batman and Robin, Shazam (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-15 06:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2219490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmStoryteller/pseuds/IAmStoryteller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damian Wayne and Mary Batson are going on a date, only to be interrupted…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartstrings

Bruce constantly worried about Damian, especially when he was still a little homicidal and very angry. When Damian came back to life, Bruce worried about how Damian was going to adapt. Now, Bruce was worried that something was seriously wrong with his seventeen year old son. Damian’s puberty hit him hard. As it turned out, his son can attract both male and female admirers, Damian’s dating record is now up there with the likes of Bruce, himself, Ollie, various Titans including the original Five (Donna, Dick, Wally, Roy and Garth). Being the paranoid bastard that he was, he knew that Damian hadn’t sleep with any of his various dates of both genders.

What Bruce couldn’t fathom that sweet Mary Batson agreed to a date with his son. Mary was five years older than Damian. Surely, Mary had plenty of admirers her own age that would risk the wrath of her overprotective twin brother, Billy, to go out with her. Damian claimed it was just a friendly date and no, he was not going to start dating various Superheroines.

He really wished Damian and Nell had worked out.

Because dating Mary was too close to Damian spending prolonged time with Billy. (After the first few months of Billy being a superhero, Billy’s true kind and generous personality broke through his rough, I-Hate-Everyone shield and he became more tolerable, although he was still prone to be silly at times. Bruce respected the kid to an extent).

And that would change everything.

Damian would never forgive him if he actually found out how Bruce got Damian back to life. And all of Billy’s efforts to avoid Damian would be for naught. Somehow, the universe was laughing at him.

-`-`-`

Damian was rather pleased with himself. Mary was a pretty woman, single and intelligent. She also knew about being a superhero and knew that Damian was Robin. The only other superhero he dated was Batgirl-in-training Nell and they had gotten on each other’s nerves like no tomorrow. Damian did not know the Shazam Family well, except for the few times he got into it with Freddy Freeman. He knew that the lot of them were kind-hearted people. If Mary had refused, he could have asked Darla, who was only a couple years older than him.

His father did not understand why he had to date so many people. Damian, since he came back, found that while he was happy to be with his father and family, being Robin, there was something missing. That something missing had been gnawing at him for the last seven years, but only increased with his age. 

Damian knew that it had something to do with his rebirth. His father never did explain the events surrounding his rebirth. He had been tempted to go to the woman, Dr. Fate, who had been there and get it out of her. There was someone else in the room, but he couldn’t remember who, someone who left before Damian was fully awake.

He was trying to find out if the something missing was the same as the mysterious person at his rebirth. Or maybe he was just losing his mind?

Either way, how bad could going on one date with Mary Batson actually be?

-`-`-`

Mary was surprised that Damian, the devilishly handsome hero Robin, actually asked her out. She had been hearing rumors about him, being a playboy like Bruce Wayne, but she highly doubted that he did anything with any of those people, aside from spending a couple of hours with them. Mary hadn’t been on a date in three years and it would be nice to get out of the house, away from her nosy family.

Billy had been strangely reticent on the news that Mary was going out with Damian. Normally, Billy would demand all information possible about the guy that Mary was going out with and proceed to be threatening as possible when the guy picked her up. If the guy didn’t turn away scared, he may even get a second date. Billy didn’t think anyone was good enough for Mary or Darla. In fact, Billy didn’t like any of Eugene or Pedro’s admirers. And Billy was certainly struggling with Freddy and Amon’s relationship, as much as Mary had been.

Mary supposed that Damian was okay in Billy’s eyes.

Damian picked her up in one of his very expensive cars. He even came to the door and exchanged pleasantries with Eugene and Darla, who were the only ones home. He properly complemented her on her appearance. Meanwhile, Billy was mysteriously missing in action. The others and their former foster parents were all out on the town. He escorted her to the car and opened the door for her.

He was a gentlemen, to her surprise. He always seemed so prickly and angry when she had worked with him as Robin. But then again, Batman was a no-nonsense jackass, but the real Bruce Wayne was a genuinely good guy, even if he was a bit awkward.

The restaurant was not overtly fancy, but enough that Mary felt a little spoiled to be there.

He asked her about work, and let her talk about herself, even though she suspected he knew all this already. 

“So, why did you really ask me out? I don’t think you have a crush on me,” said Mary, smiling. Damian looked taken aback for a moment, taking a sip of his ginger ale. “I have four brothers and a sister, I know these things.” 

“Well, then, perhaps I just wanted good company tonight,” said Damian, evasively. He was not one for talking about his feelings with someone he barely knew. Mary smiled still.

“Charmer. How come Tim’s never this way,” asked Mary. Damian snorted. Tim was oblivious and dense to anything not concerning ‘work.’ The Shazam Family were closer to Tim’s age than Damian’s age and worked more with Tim and his Titans.

“Drake is completely awkward around proper girls,” said Damian, quirking a smirk.

Mary giggled. She had no idea what Damian meant by proper girls, but felt it was a complement. Their conversation continued into playful ribbing on their siblings.

Then, their nice date was ruined.

-`-`-`-`

Damian watched the scene in front of them, very confused. He was tapping his fingers on the table. Amon Tomaz was sitting in his wheelchair, mortified, shaking his head, pleading with his boyfriend ‘to let’s just go.’ Freddy Freeman was scolding Mary. Damian had thought that Freddy long since chose Amon over Mary, so why was he here? Freddy could not dislike Damian that much, could he? How come Amon was not doing anything? Something was off here.

Damian knew that Billy Batson had a furious temper (his father had been on the receiving end of it a few times). It seemed that Mary Batson had an equally furious temper.

She was going to start either shouting at Freddy or would punch him, hard. Damian was hoping for the latter.

Thankfully, or not depending on how this thing was going to go, Billy Batson entered the restaurant. Damian was stunned to find that he had never seen Billy as himself, except in pictures and security footage. The only times they interacted were when he was Shazam and even if that was very rare. Billy had an annoyed look on his face, but one that said that he had to deal with this kind of nonsense all the time. Apparently Amon texted Billy about the situation.

“Enough,” interjected Billy. None too gently he grabbed Freddy by the arm and Mary by the arm. “Go outside and talk like adults, but don’t ruin everyone in the room’s evening because of your nonsense. Amon, go outside with them and make sure they talk, properly.” To Damian’s surprise, the three left the restaurant and Billy sat in Mary’s place across from him. “Sorry about that, Damian. That is a mess.” He rolled his eyes, gesturing to Freddy, Mary and Amon.

Damian shrugged it off. “Is she going to come back?” This sounded much cooler in his mind. Because now, sitting across from Billy, Damian realized that the older man was beautiful. Deep blue eyes, perfectly messy ebony hair, and the best part was that he did not look completely like Shazam (the champion), he had the look of someone who cared less about appearance. Overall, he was an attractive man. Someone you couldn’t take your eyes off of…

Billy looked resigned, for some reason. “Probably not, after Freddy riled her up so much. My sister can get violent when provoked and Freddy knows exactly how to do that. Well, I don’t like wasting food.”

“So I get the prettier twin for my date instead,” said Damian, suddenly flushing because he was not supposed to say that out loud. Ever. 

Billy laughed. “Mary claims she’s the brains and I’m the beauty, after all.” Damian decided he liked hearing Billy laugh.

-`-`-`-

Mary didn’t come back. He got a text that said that the three of them were going to Amon and Adrianna’s place. He told Damian that Mary was too drained from dealing with Freddy and she had apologized for ditching him. Damian merely accepted it. Billy cursed in his head for two reasons. He was actually having a good time with Damian. He knew that anymore time spent between them, would have Damian realizing certain things that just was not fair to the younger man. But, Bruce and Billy both knew that their actions had consequences. To bring Damian back to life seven years ago with the then-new Dr. Fate’ aid. 

In return…

The second reason was that he was afraid of what was happening between the threesome, because Billy knew that things were going to get strange in the family somehow.

Billy sighed as he reluctantly agreed to go for a drive outside the city, after dinner (luckily, he and Mary both love steak). Billy never been in a Maserati before, so curiosity bit him hard. Damian was charming, handsome and had a distractingly nice mouth. 

They were harmlessly flirting with each other. Billy knew that this was a bad idea and Bruce would kill him. But it had been a long time since he hadn’t been anxious or stressed. The urge to have Damian just drive until they were far away from everything, so it could be just the two of them was strong. 

They stopped outside of the town, near the wildflower fields (currently being redone due to the fact last week he had crash landed into the field thanks to the giant robotic gorilla throwing the mayor that way).

“I remember. You were there the day I came back to life. What happened?” He looked at Billy, merely curious.

Billy cringed. Damian was going to kill him. Or Bruce was going to kill him. Either way he was screwed.

-`-`-`

Damian remembered the moment their hands touched when they were reaching for the bill. He remembered fifteen year old Billy standing there, watching him awake. The looks passed between him and Damian’s father. Billy would tell him. The guy was not a good liar.

Billy knew that from the look on his face.

“You have to promise not to overreact,” mumbled Billy. Damian nodded, hesitantly. His temper had eased over the years but if it was something horrendous, he may flip despite the promise. “Bringing you back consumed your father for months. No one could talk him out of it. It didn’t help that Dick was gone, Tim and Jason left calling him out on stuff between them. Then, we almost got your body back from your grandfather, but I screwed up because I didn’t know that there was some sort of gemstone that could help. Dr. Fate was recruited by your father to research how to bring back without breaking the laws of nature.”

“I figured as much.”

Billy gave him a look for interrupting. “Your father retrieved your body with Tim, Jason and Barb’s help. Meanwhile I hijacked this artifact from Kahndaq that was needed. Then Dr. Fate told Bruce and I the price,” said Billy, looked down. Softly, “I couldn’t say no and break his heart. I mean, the man faced the Justice League, Darkseid, and the League of Assassins, his own family, just to get you back. If I had said no, he would have found another way or die trying.”

“What did you do,” asked Damian, worried.

Billy sighed and bit his lip. “Our souls are bound together, it is what is keeping your soul in your body. Dr. Fate didn’t tell me everything, but the Wizard knew. I die you die. Vice versa. Your pain is my pain. Vice versa. The need to be near you, for me eventually and depending, will get to the point where I have to be by your side. It’s why I avoided you all this time. The Wizard told me that you will feel like something is missing unless you’re with me…by that I mean, with me, with me, not…”

“And you agreed to stay away so this would not be my burden, only yours, because my father asked you,” asked Damian. Billy nodded. Seconds passed, before Damian grabbed Billy was the shirt.

And kissed him.

Inexperienced and rough as Damian was, he was surprised to find Billy kissing back. “Bruce is going to kill me.”

“He’s not, so long as I’m happy,” muttered Damian centimeters from Billy’s mouth.

“As long as you’re sure, Damian, that this is what you want,” whispered Billy, searching Damian’s face for doubt.

“Heart wants what the heart wants.” Then, Damian kissed Billy again.


End file.
